Common Pepper Plant Pests and How to Manage Them

The damage: soft-bodied insects cluster on tender new growth and leaf undersides, suck sap, and curl and yellow the leaves. Their sticky honeydew grows black sooty mold. The bigger threat is that they spread cucumber mosaic virus and potyviruses as they probe from plant to plant.

Spot it: pale green (sometimes pink) soft insects on shoot tips and undersides, winged and wingless forms, shiny honeydew, and ants farming them.

The damage: tiny slivers that rasp leaf and flower surfaces, leaving silvery or white stippling flecked with tiny black fecal specks, plus distorted growth and deformed flowers. The headline threat is that they vector Tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV).

Spot it: slender insects less than one sixteenth of an inch, pale yellow to brown. Tap a flower or shoot over white paper and watch for moving slivers. Silvery patches on new leaves. Blue or yellow sticky traps.

The damage: tiny white moth-like insects on leaf undersides that suck sap, weaken plants, and coat leaves in honeydew and sooty mold. They also vector begomoviruses that cause leaf curl.

Spot it: clouds of tiny white insects fly up when you disturb a plant. Flat, oval, pale nymphs sit on leaf undersides. Sticky honeydew and yellow sticky traps.

The damage: feeding on leaf undersides leaves fine yellow stippling, then bronzing, then fine webbing. Populations explode in hot, dry weather and in greenhouses, tunnels, and dusty edges.

Spot it: tiny moving specks (each with two dark spots) on leaf undersides, fine silk webbing, and dull, stippled leaves. Tap a leaf over white paper and watch the dots move.

The damage: microscopic mites attack the youngest growing tips. New leaves curl downward, stiffen, and take on a bronzed, corky sheen, and the growing point distorts. It is routinely mistaken for a virus or herbicide damage.

Spot it: you basically cannot see the mite. Suspect broad mite when new growth is twisted and bronzed but you find no aphids or visible mites. A 14 to 30x loupe is needed to confirm, and the damage lingers for weeks after the mites are gone.

The damage: tiny beetles chew many small round shot-holes in leaves. They are worst on seedlings and young transplants, which they can stunt or kill, while mature plants shrug off a lot of damage.

Spot it: very small dark beetles that jump like fleas when disturbed, and a scatter of tiny round holes and pits across the leaves.

The damage: better known as a tomato pest, hornworms feed readily on peppers too. They are huge green caterpillars with a tail horn that devour whole leaves overnight and can defoliate a plant, and they may nick fruit but do not tunnel deep into it.

Spot it: sudden heavy defoliation and large dark droppings (frass) below the plant. Look along the stems and midribs, easiest at dusk. They even glow under a blacklight.

The damage: the caterpillar bores into buds and fruit, hollowing them out and opening the door to rot. Once it is inside the pod, it is protected from any spray.

Spot it: entry holes in fruit, frass, and hollowed or rotting pods. Eggs are laid singly on leaves near flowers and fruit.

The damage: the signature pepper pest. A tiny dark weevil lays eggs in flower buds and small pods, and the grubs feed inside, causing bud drop, fruit drop, and brown or moldy cores. Heavy infestations can wipe out a crop, and the larvae are protected inside the pod.

Spot it: a small (2 to 3.5 mm) dark weevil with a long snout, unexplained dropping of buds and small fruit, and a yellowing stem on infested pods. Use pheromone or yellow sticky traps and check terminal buds.